Promoting the practice of argumentation requires the development of appropriate pedagogical approaches (Hong et al.,
2006), and Maloney and Simon (2006) noted that a science program must incorporate pedagogical approaches and appro-
priate activities that offer exercises that enable students to effectively practice argument. Thus, many studies have developed
pedagogical approaches to foster argumentation skills. For example, Ge and Land (2004) presented a framework using question
prompts to direct students' attention to key points of a problem, help students to construct arguments grounded in evidence,
and guide the peer problem-solving process. Hong et al. (2006) scaffolded the learning process by modeling the argumentation
steps and providing sentence openers that help students compose their arguments. Maloney and Simon (2006) found that the
practice of discussing evidence and adopting roles that strive to use argumentation skills can enhance students' scientific
reasoning skills and comprehension of scientific concepts. Golanics and Nussbaum (2008) adopted an intervention in which
question prompts are used to remind students of various arguments and counter-arguments. This form of question prompts
balanced argumentation for all students, especially for those with relatively low levels of knowledge.